Effective SEO – why does it not work most often?

However, before we move on to the tools with which you can measure SEO effectiveness, let’s consider what parameters are worth checking at all. Just a few years ago, it was popular to sign SEO contracts “for effect”. It was a model which assumed that the client pays the agency only for achieving a specific goal, i.e. for placing the appropriate number of phrases in the TOP search. However, this method of billing the service is irretrievably obsolete and for good reason – the approach that assumes more work with the website than focusing on punching in specific phrases works better.

In SEO activities, we fight primarily for valuable traffic, i.e. one that brings measurable benefits for the brand. However, the mere appearance in TOP10 or even TOP3 of a phrase that no one is looking for does not bring any profit. Additionally, even if it is a valuable phrase, its appearance does not guarantee that the user will click on the link to the page. If the content of the headline and description doesn’t meet his expectations, he or she may search for a different site. And even if the recipient goes to the page, it will not do anything if they do not find what they are looking for on it. Therefore, for SEO to be really effective, it must be comprehensive and lead the user through the entire shopping path. With this approach, phrase monitoring is only one of the ways to measure SEO effectiveness.

What parameters say, “yes, SEO works”?

In order to correctly measure the effects of positioning, we should first determine what goals we want to achieve with its help. On their basis, the so-called KPI (Key Performance Indicators), i.e. key performance indicators. It simply means a verifiable premise that SEO activities should be considered a success – these indicators should be agreed with the SEO company at the beginning and accompany us throughout the process of building website visibility. KPIs for positioning may be different and should be set each time for a given brand. The most commonly used, however, are:

– increase in valuable traffic on the website,
– an increase in the number of conversions from the organic channel, i.e. from search results,
– decreasing bounce rate, i.e. situations in which the user leaves the website immediately after entering it,
– increase in the number of phrases in TOP10 and TOP50,
– improving the position of key phrases for business,
– extending the average time spent on the website.

SEO results in Google Analytics

The first free tool that we can use to measure SEO effects is Google Analytics. By placing a special tracking code on your website, we can use this tool to check how users behave when they are on it. It is worth checking parameters such as:

– website traffic – by comparing the current results with those from before, say, half a year, we can check whether the website has a noticeable increase,
– bounce rate – this indicator will show us whether users find what they need on the website,
– the number of views of those subpages that are the most important for our business, e.g. the most important product categories,
– the number of conversions – i.e. actions that are important to us to be performed by the user. A conversion can be the purchase of a product, but also, for example, sending a contact form, downloading a guide or booking an appointment,
– average time spent on the site – this information will help you determine if the site meets the expectations of users. Thanks to this, you will find out if the subpages are positioned with the appropriate phrases.

However, in order to get the correct results from Google Analytics, you must first configure the tool properly. If we don’t, the data will be falsified. Before we start monitoring anything with its help, we should exclude the own IP and IP of the agency that deals with SEO from the measurements. Then the tool will not count visits to the website that do not come from potential customers. Then, we should also exclude traffic generated by known bots and block typical spam bots from accessing the site. For the data to be credible, you should also mark that the tool should only consider traffic to our host.

If we use Google Ads or Facebook Ads, it is also necessary to link the Analytics account with the Google Ads account and the implementation of the Facebook pixel on the website. Thanks to this, the system will recognize traffic and conversions from these sources, which will give more reliable results from the organic channel. What else do we need to set to get information about SEO effects from Google Analytics? Certainly, define the appropriate goals, i.e. indicate what the system should consider as a conversion.

In the case of Google Analytics, the Acquisition and Conversions reports will be most helpful for us.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the second from the repertoire of google tools that are worth using in measuring SEO effectiveness. It does not use internal data directly from our website, but shows how the website is viewed by search engine robots. First of all, we can check in it:

– a list of phrases for which the page is displayed on Google,
– CTR, which is the ratio of clicks on a link to impressions of that link in the results.

Thanks to this, we can control not only how many phrases our website is displayed in TOP positions, but also whether these views are followed by further actions.

What Google Search Console offers us in the context of measuring results is also the ability to filter phrases on which the page is displayed. Thanks to this, we can easily and quickly control what results are achieved by those phrases that are key to our business. However, Google Search Console is only an auxiliary monitoring tool and will not replace the more precise tools that will be discussed in the next paragraph.

Third party SEO monitoring tools

In addition to free Google tools, we also have a number of paid external programs to help measure SEO effectiveness. They have their own algorithms that try to imitate the algorithms of search engines and based on them provide data on the visibility of a specific website. These tools help not only to screen the website in terms of the position of phrases or estimated traffic on the site, but also to compare these results with the visibility of the competition. There are a lot of such programs on the market and most of them have a similar field of action, so the choice between them is usually dictated by personal preferences. Such programs include Senuto, Semstorm, Ahrefs, SurferSEO and Semrush, among others.

Reports from these tools are a good starting point when analyzing the effectiveness of positioning, but they should not be the only sources from which we draw our knowledge. None of the programs has access to the Google algorithm, so it does not reflect 100% of the results that our website achieves in the search engine – it can only approximate them. Sometimes the results of individual tools may differ significantly from each other. Practice shows that these differences, in extreme cases, may even reach several dozen percent. Where do such discrepancies come from? Nobody knows exactly what the impact of individual elements on the position of the page. External tools must therefore make certain assumptions that do not always overlap. It also happens that updating one of the tools will lead to an error that distorts the data for some time. Therefore, you should always assume a certain margin of error when using these tools.

So how do you ultimately monitor your SEO activities? First of all, instead of focusing only on tracking the position of phrases, you should take into account the wider context, including website traffic, bounce rate or the number of conversions in which organic was the main or supporting channel. It also helps to divide KPIs into main and auxiliary and focusing in them on activities that are dependent on the positioner. You cannot limit yourself to only data from one source – each of them has its limitations, so only a comparison gives us a full picture of the situation.

Why is product feed optimization so important?

At the beginning, it is worth asking yourself the basic question why the care of the product feed is so high in the hierarchy of activities that we undertake when creating a PLA campaign. It is such an important factor for several reasons. First of all, in this type of campaign, we have no influence on what key phrases our ad will be displayed on. It is the Google Ads algorithm that decides when to show our product, based on the information contained in the product feed. Therefore, optimizing this file, for example by adding key phrases of interest to us in the title or description of the item, gives us at least an indirect influence on to whom and in what context our products will be published.

Secondly, a number of attributes can be added to each product, i.e. product features, such as, among others, size, color, material, gender (e.g. in the case of clothes) or pattern. In the Google Shopping tab, the user can filter the results based on exactly the same attributes. So the more fields describing the product are filled in, the greater the chance that it will also appear in filtered views. The third reason to optimize the feed is that Google Ads algorithms constantly determine its quality and reward products from those files that they consider to be of high quality in views.

High feed quality, in addition to influencing your impression position, can also help reduce CPC, the rate per click on your ad. If the feed is well structured, our product is more suited to the customer’s inquiry, thanks to which we burn less budget. This means that the campaign can achieve much better results, as it gives more clicks within the set budget and reaches a better selected audience.

What must be included in the product feed?

In the case of the product feed, some information is mandatory for the feed to be accepted by the system, and some is optional, and in addition, some options are required only in campaigns for selected countries or only in the case of specific product categories. Therefore, when creating a product campaign, it is best to check the feed requirements in our industry and in the country where we want to publish the advertisements. In simplified terms, however, it can be said that the information that must be included in the product feed includes:

– ID – unique identifier of the product. Ideally, it should be the same as in our warehouse identification.
– Title – the name of the product and the most important information about it. We will write a little further about what exactly it should look like.
– Description – in this field, describe the product in detail, using the keywords that are most relevant to you.
– Link – this should lead to the product page where you can make the purchase.
– Image link – address of the main product image, which will be available for indexing by Google.
– Availability – product status. It can have the value “in stock”, “unavailable”, “temporarily unavailable” or “presale” (in the case of the last two options, it is also obligatory to complete the attribute indicating the date of availability).
– Price – it must be consistent with the price on the store’s website and on the payment page.
– GTIN – Global Trade Item Number – GTIN is required only for products that have this manufacturer assigned number, but Google strongly recommends it be used for all products.

If the product feed includes the above-mentioned elements, it will be accepted by the advertising system, but it is not tantamount to high quality of the feed. These are only the basics and to get a high rating for the algorithm, you should also complete some of the attributes from the optional list. Before we get down to describing them, however, let’s figure out how to optimize this basic product data.

How to optimize your product feed titles?

The title is a very important element not only because it is one of the first pieces of information the user sees. It is also important because it is one of the main parameters that the algorithm takes into account when determining which keywords to display a given product on. Therefore, it is worth including not only information about the name of the product, but also, for example, its brand, color or size. We will repeat this information in other attributes, but if we also include it in the title, we increase the chance that the products will be displayed with the best queries in their case. The order in which the information is provided is also very important, which may be slightly different for different product categories. Google states that the best practices for title optimization for the most popular industries are:

– Clothes: Brand name + Gender + Product type + Product features (color, size, material, etc.),
– Food: Brand name + Product type + Product features (taste, number of pieces in a package, weight),
– Home & Garden: Brand Name + Product Type + Product Features + Model,
– Electronics: Brand Name + Product Features + Product Type + Model,
– Seasonal products: Opportunity + Product Type + Product Features.

Of course, these are not universal models that will work in all cases. For example, a brand name in a title will only attract an audience if it is recognizable and has a good reputation. So it’s best to experiment with names and test different options to choose the combination that works best for you.

It is also worth remembering that product titles may be displayed differently on different devices and thus the system may cut them off in some cases. We have 150 characters to use in the title field and it is good to use them, but make sure you have the most important information at the beginning of this section. In the Google Shopping tab, the titles are truncated after 70 characters, so it’s best to fit the most important data in this pool.

How to optimize the descriptions in the product feed?

In the case of the product description in the feed, we have 5,000 characters at our disposal. Of course, we don’t have to use all of them, but this field is a place for us to place many keywords. Admittedly, this will not guarantee that the product will show up for these words, but it does significantly increase the chances of it happening.

The description should not only be saturated with keywords, but also valuable for the user. Therefore, it is worth ensuring that it describes the product in detail and is of high quality. The description for each product should be unique, which increases the chance that the system will correctly select the one that best suits a given search query from the list of our products. For this field it is best to use a minimum of 500 characters, although of course the more useful information for the user, the better.

However, the question of where to get the information from which keywords will be most valuable for a given product remains. This is where the free Google Trends tool comes in handy. In it, we can enter terms that are associated with our product and check which of them are most frequently searched by users of the search engine. Thanks to this, we can include in the description those key phrases that have a chance to bring us the most impressions and clicks on the ad. For example, if Google Trends shows that “women’s black high heels” than “women’s black pumps” are more frequently searched for, it is worth using the first option in both the description and the title.

How to optimize product photos in a product feed?

An obligatory element of the feed is a link to a product photo, which the system can then use in advertisements. However, in order to obtain the best possible file quality, it is worth not to stop at one photo, but add a few to show the product more precisely. This can be done by using the Link to additional photo attribute. This attribute can be repeated 10 times for one product, which means we can add up to 10 additional photos. However, the standard is that for one product, we put 3-5 photos that show the product from different angles.

All photos should be of good quality, but their weight must not exceed 16 MB. Although in the official specification of the feed on the Google website we can find the information that the photos should have a minimum of 250 × 250 pixels for clothing and 100 × 100 pixels for other products, it is better to focus on photos with a higher resolution. The optimal size for product photos is 800 × 800 pixels. It’s a good idea to stick to these guidelines, because high-quality images improve your click-through rate and, as a result, can also increase your conversions.

Optional attributes that should be completed to optimize the product feed

As already mentioned, in addition to the basic data, it is also worth supplementing at least some of the attributes that are considered optional by the system. It is true that the file without them will be accepted and the ads will be displayed, but their effectiveness will not be as good as if we added additional information. Here are some attributes that should definitely be supplemented.

Brand
The Brand Attribute is most helpful when we sell products of well-known and frequently searched brands, but it is worth using in any case. However, this is an attribute that is often misspelled and can make your ads less effective, so pay close attention to it. A common mistake is to enter the name of your online store here, while the correct value is the name of the manufacturer of the product. So if, for example, we sell Nike sneakers in our store called XYZ, we should enter “Nike” in the brand attribute, not “XYZ”. Enter the name of your online store here only when our company produces the item from the offer. If the product does not have a brand or the brand is unknown, do not complete this attribute. It is a mistake to enter a value of the type “not applicable” or “missing” here.

Product group ID
This attribute is used to group products that come in different versions, such as sizes and colors. Thanks to this, they will not be displayed to users as separate products, but as variants of the same item, which will make it easier to get to know the offer and make a purchase decision. For all products to be grouped, we should add the same product group ID.

Size
This attribute is mandatory for clothes and shoes, but recommended for all products with different size variants. It is best to use the most popular sizes in the country where the campaign is to be used to determine this parameter. If a product is available in multiple sizes, it is important that you add the Product Group ID to all versions of the product. If the garment we sell has one size, we can enter the value “universal size” in the attribute.

Material
Material is one of the most important attributes for many products, including clothing, accessories, footwear and furniture. If the product has different material variants, each of them is added to the file separately and combined into one offer using the same product group identifier. It happens, however, that an item is made of several materials, e.g. a mixture of cotton and polyester. Then all the materials are added in one version in the Material attribute, separating them with the “/” sign without spaces, eg “cotton / polyester”.

Mobile link
If we have different URLs for traffic from computers and mobile devices, we can also complete the Mobile link attribute. Thanks to this, we will make sure that users using smartphones and tablets, after clicking the ad, will go to the subpages of our store optimized for these devices. This, in turn, will give them a better shopping experience for our brand. If the page URL is the same for both the desktop and mobile versions, we don’t need to complete this attribute.

What else can be done to optimize the product feed?

The high level of the product feed is also influenced by including information about product types in it and filling in the field with Google categories. Thanks to the proper classification of the product, the system is better at positioning the offer and adjusting it to the needs of the recipients.

It is also worth ensuring that only up-to-date information about our product range appears in the product feed. For this purpose, it is best to set up automatic product feed updates in Google Merchant Center once a day. You can also fix more frequent updates (up to 4 times a day), but such frequent refreshing of the product feed is only necessary in individual cases. In addition, if we make changes to the website, e.g. we add new products to the offer or introduce a promotion, we can also force the feed update manually, without waiting for the automatic download of data. When setting automatic updates, it is a good idea to choose night hours so that refreshing the file does not interfere with the display of ads to recipients.

By using Design Thinking, we want to give free rein to our imagination, generate more or less real ideas and approach template solutions from a completely different angle. What is the practical side of applying this methodology? How can your company use it to create a new offer, generate a creative concept for a marketing campaign or new ideas for CSR activities? About it below!

Design Thinking – what is it?

Design Thinking is a method of solving problems and creating new solutions. It’s different design thinking. This methodology is based on understanding and indicating a given problem or need of the recipient, and then on looking for solutions, often in an unconventional and ambiguous way, and ending with implementing these ideas, as well as testing and improving them in practice.

This term was first defined in the USA in the 1960s. Design Thinking courses, workshops and trainings have appeared. This solution quickly gained its fans among marketing and social media specialists, employer branding, brand managers and project managers (in most areas where we have a special need for non-standard ideas and creative problem solving methods).

Design Thinking – for whom?

The Design Thinking process, despite the fact that it seems complicated at first glance, is in fact a very universal method, not reserved only for large companies and large design teams. Anyone can use it. It will be used in the areas of business, science and culture. It is so universal that it will work well both with smaller internal projects and creating a global advertising campaign. It’s not everything. The benefits of the Design Thinking approach can also benefit:

– UX designers, UI and graphic designers interested in getting a new approach to solving design problems and generating solutions that work;
– project managers looking for a holistic process that integrates all stakeholders to create user-centric solutions;
– developers interested in participating in the idea generation and design process;
– entrepreneurs who want to empathize with users and create products that fit the market and the lives of users;
– marketers who want to deeply understand customers;
– project / company stakeholders who want to get involved in the process of building a product or service;
– anyone who is interested in an innovative approach to problem solving both at work and in life.

Design Thinking is useful for solving complex problems that are poorly defined or unknown, by understanding the related human needs, re-formulating the problem in a user-centered manner, generating multiple ideas in brainstorming sessions, and adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing.

Design Thinking – examples when is it worth using?

Design Thinking can be used by anyone who is familiar with the purpose and the process of following this methodology at least to a small extent. This process may turn out to be more fruitful than standard processes aimed at creating a new service, product or approach in the company. When is it worth getting interested in Design Thinking and trying to follow its principles?

– creating a new service for customers or improving current services / products,
– creating a new advertising campaign (offline and online), including its strategy, necessary materials and techniques to reach recipients,
– improving strategies for acquiring new customers, partners or associates,
– improving the paths of our potential client,
– developing benefit packages for employees and forms of remuneration,
– designing processes in the company (employment, administration, procurement, technology or customer service, etc.)
– creating the concept of CSR activities,
– by developing an Employer Branding strategy,
– during rebranding activities, changes in the company’s visual identity,
– and more.

Design Thinking – How to start?

The Design Thinking process is divided into five stages: Empatization, Defining (problem), Ideation (looking for solutions), Prototyping, Testing. In practice, however, this process can be conducted in a more flexible and non-linear manner. For example, different groups on a project team may conduct more than one phase at a time, or designers may gather information and prototypes throughout the project to present their ideas and visualize solutions to problems at any given time.

Importantly, in Design Thinking, designers do not make early assessments of the quality of ideas. The goal is to minimize the fear of failure and maximize stakeholder input and participation in the ideation (brainstorming) and prototyping phase (more on this below). To start your adventure with Design Thinking, all you need to do is get to know the general assumptions of the process and divide your work into fixed stages.

Design Thinking stages

Design Thinking can be divided in several ways. The most common and used five step process is broken down as follows:

– Empathizing – collecting data and getting to know our recipient.
– Defining the problem – collecting all information from phase I and analyzing it in order to identify problems / conundrums of our recipient.
– Ideation – the stage of starting to generate ideas.
– Prototyping – designing solutions that will answer the problems identified and analyzed in the earlier stages.
– Testing – checking whether the generated ideas and created prototypes are effective and helpful.

Empathizing (Empathy)
The first part of the Design Thinking process is related to “empathizing” with the recipient’s needs. It is necessary to look at the problem from the viewer’s point of view and try to understand how he thinks, acts and feels. The first stage of Design Thinking is the moment of collecting data about the recipient. It may turn out that the way we look at a given problem differs from the way the potential recipient looks at it. Information analysis and gathering can take place through interaction and conversation, but also through observation and analysis of statistics. Popular measures used at this stage include: empathy maps, ethnographic interviews, user observations or surveys. Everything that is collected at this stage determines the next steps to some extent.

Defining (the problem)
The next stage of Design Thinking is to define, more specifically formulate a given problem. To do this, it is necessary to synthesize the information gathered at the empathy stage. Noticing the real needs of the recipient is difficult, the more so as we tend to close ourselves in our habits and mental frames. Defining or redefining the problem allows you to set a further direction of work. It is important to define the problem optimally, that is, not to close it too narrowly or too broadly. It is also worth getting away from habits or stereotypes, which can significantly affect the perception of problems and thus make it difficult for us to look at the problem objectively. Techniques helping to identify and define the problem we are working on include brainstorming, 5x why technique, problem mapping on the “how?” vs “what for?” etc. It is difficult to recommend one particular technique unequivocally. Each project team may have a different favorite or more proven method, according to which it works best. You can also experiment with techniques to spot differences in approaches and collect as many different results as possible.

Ideation – looking for solutions
Having a defined problem, in the next step of Design Thinking we look for its solutions. It should be a series of ideas, of which only at the end those considered the best will be used for the prototyping stage. The solution stage is a bit tricky. We often want to look for answers right away. However, without thorough working through the two previous stages, we can find wrong solutions, because the recipient’s needs are different than we originally assumed or the problem has a different basis than what we thought at the beginning. The primary tool at this stage is brainstorming. What is important at this stage is the approach of looking for many possibilities, instead of one specific result. Our goal should be to find unconventional solutions, and these will not always be appropriate and rational at first glance.

Prototyping
This is the time to create initial versions of our solutions and specify the materials, sources or necessary resources for their implementation. We are creating a prototype, i.e. our beta version, which, based on the results obtained at a later stage, i.e. testing, we will modify and refine accordingly. At this stage, it is worth informing our team that we do not want everything to be buttoned up to the last button and that the solutions are perfectly refined. Here we want to visualize what we have been working on. If it was a mobile application – we can evaluate the mock-ups sent by graphic designers. If this is a new service that we want to enrich our portfolio, we can subject it to final evaluation by the team. What we have been working on in the last stages will soon see the light of day. Prototyping is the last opportunity to analyze the collected data, check whether the solution meets the needs and problems of our user and compare them with other solutions to make sure that we can test them.

Testing
This is the last stage of Design Thinking, although some sources mention the sixth stage: implementation. The results obtained during the testing phase are often used to redefine one or more problems based on the available data about users, their way of thinking, behavior, or how they use a given product or service. Even at this stage, changes and improvements are still made to exclude all shortcomings and obtain the most effective solution.

Design Thinking – tools that support your work!

Different tools can be useful at each stage. Depending on how we work: is it an online meeting during which we have the ability to communicate only via the messenger or all stakeholders are gathered together in the room.

Design Thinking tools for online work
In the online version, we will certainly need tools to help you collect all the ideas created during the brainstorming in one place. It can be, for example, RealtimeBoard, Milanote, MindMap, MindMeister, Coggle or the well-known regular Google Documents.

Design Thinking tools for offline work
In offline work, in addition to a desk and comfortable chairs, materials that will help you save or visualize the collected ideas, such as flipcharts, colored sticky notes or boards, will also be useful.

Tools in the prototyping and testing phases
In the prototyping phase, Figma or Adobe XD may be useful for us. However, at the testing stage, tools such as HotJar, SmartLook or A / B testing will be useful.

Summary

Design Thinking requires conscious behavior and openness in order to obtain a proven and rational solution, which may be an innovative product or service that meets the needs of our customers. It is a way to introduce an unconventional solution to our company and allow colleagues to propose their ideas to a wider group, without risking criticism or hasty evaluation. Although it is a relatively simple method, the use of appropriate tools and moderating the group by a responsible person plays a key role in determining the success of the project.

Ang pagpoposisyon ng website ay isang serye ng mga aktibidad na naglalayong makamit ang pinakamataas na posisyon sa natural na mga resulta ng paghahanap ng isang naibigay na website. Ang prosesong ito ay binubuo ng mga aktibidad na “nasa pahina” tulad ng pag-optimize ng mismong website (ang aksyon na ito ay kilala bilang SEO – Search Engine Optimization), pati na rin ang gawaing “off page” na isinasagawa sa labas ng website mismo. Ang isa sa pinakamahalagang kadahilanan sa pagraranggo ay natatanging nilalaman.

Ang ilang mga tao ay nais pa rin ang kanilang nilalaman ay isulat sa pamamagitan ng kamay. Ginamit ang mga ito upang lumikha ng pangungusap pagkatapos ng pangungusap at muling pagsusulat ng mga artikulo upang matiyak ang kalidad ng nilalaman. Bagaman ito ang pinakasimpleng pagsasanay, maaaring tumagal ng maraming oras o araw upang makamit.

Ngunit mayroon ding mga tao na alinman sa labis na katahimikan upang muling isulat ang kanilang artikulo o makilala ang kahulugan ng oras at samakatuwid ay naghahanap para sa isang libreng tool na paraphrasing. Kung ikaw ay tulad ng karamihan ng mga tao na alam ang isang halaga ng iyong oras, nakarating ka sa isang perpektong lugar.

Ang Paraphrase Online ay ang pinakamahusay na muling pagsulat ng artikulo sa web. Napakabilis nitong binabago ang mga solong salita at parirala, at kung ano ang pinaka-imprtant – tumpak. Upang mailagay ito nang maikli: Nagustuhan ng Google kung kakaiba ang nilalaman at hindi ito gusto kapag kinopya ang mga ito sa parehong form sa pagitan ng iba’t ibang mga website. Makatuwiran ito, sapagkat upang maibigay ang mga gumagamit ng pinakamahusay na kalidad na posibleng mga resulta sa paghahanap, ang impormasyon ay hindi maikakalat sa web sa parehong form. Mayroong palaging isang pagkakataon upang ilarawan ang isang katanungan sa ibang mga salita at upang tingnan ito mula sa iba’t ibang mga anggulo. Samakatuwid, ang nabanggit na pagiging natatangi ay gagantimpalaan. Kung mayroon kang tamang kaalaman para sa iyong industriya at ikaw ay nilagyan ng isang libreng pag-record ng sofware tulad ng Paraphrase Online, walang hahadlang sa iyong paraan!

How to advertise a fishing shop on the internet?

First things first: regardless of whether your fishing store operates only in the Internet space or also in the stationary field, you need a promotion on the Web. Why? The answer to this question is very simple: this is where your customers are. It is on Google that they look for information both about stationary points in their area, where they can buy a new rod or groundbait, and about e-stores selling such goods.

That is why advertising an online fishing store is a good solution if you want to:
– increase awareness of your brand among the target group,
– increase the visibility of the website,
– take care of more traffic on the website,
– raise the level of conversion and improve sales results,
– create and strengthen the brand image.

On the web you have access to a very wide range of promotion tools – from those in the area of SEO, through Google Ads campaigns, to actions that you can take in the field of social media. Let’s take a closer look at all of these solutions.

SEO for the tackle shop

SEO activities are the first to be undertaken in the context of promoting a tackle shop. Why? Because this good positioning will allow you to appear in the first lists of search results for keywords related to your business. This is a key issue because Google is where the lion’s share of fishing enthusiasts start their shopping.

You have to remember that this is a very diverse audience. On the one hand, they will be beginners looking for basic equipment and enter very general terms, such as “spinning rod” or “cheap fishing shop”. On the other hand, they are experienced enthusiasts of this form of activity, whose purchases will be more specific. They will look for, for example, specific reels, fishing rods, hooks or advanced sonars that will allow them to map the bottom of the fishery. Therefore, your SEO activities must be able to reach such a wide audience.

A good solution is to invest in long-tail positioning, i.e. a wide range of terms and phrases related to the area of your business. Why is this a good way out? There are several reasons. First of all, you can significantly increase the ranges thanks to this. Secondly, it will be easier for you to break through the competition, which is quite large in the fishing industry. Thirdly, an investment in SEO activities carried out with this method may bring a better level of return.

Remember that the tackle shop SEO campaign is not based on random keyword selection and promotion planning. If you implement it in consultation with experts, you can count on:
– in-depth analysis of keywords – both those for which your store is currently searched and those important in the fishing industry. Specialists will look at their potential and help match them to the goals set,
– clear definition of the purposes for which the advertisement of the fishing tackle shop will be carried out – both short-term and long-term,
– SEO audit, i.e. analyzing how your website is adapted to positioning activities.

It is worth remembering that in order for SEO campaigns to be successful, it is necessary to optimize the content on the website – incl. creating substantively valuable and at the same time appropriately saturated texts with appropriate keywords, with headings, as well as the development of metadata. This, of course, is not all, because a Google algorithm-friendly website should also be responsive or error-free – all this is important for the effects of positioning.

What are the advantages of SEO?

Positioning of a tackle shop, provided that it is carried out in a thoughtful and planned manner, will bring long-term benefits for the company. It will help build large ranges and strengthen the brand image. In addition, the positioning process will create valuable texts that will also allow you to achieve persuasive effects.

It is worth emphasizing, however, that SEO activities require a long wait for results – you have to be patient for at least a few months. Also remember that although in theory you can perform positioning and optimization yourself, a much better solution is to use the support of specialists. It’s easy for you to make a mistake that will not make the invested funds well spent.

Paid ad for a tackle shop on Google

The SEO of a fishing tackle shop brings long-term results, but you have to wait just as long for them. But what if you want to achieve faster results, e.g. run a quick campaign aimed at selling specific products – just in connection with the beginning of the season for a given species of fish? This is one of the situations when you should focus on the Google Ads promotion system.

Of course, saying that Google Ads only helps with short-term campaigns is a simplification, because the set of tools provided by the Mountain View giant is very wide. By using them, you can effectively reach a very wide audience – both in search results and on external portals.

When it comes to advertising a tackle shop, consider using both of these channels.

Search engine advertising

Fishing enthusiasts who are interested in buying good quality equipment direct their first steps to Google, both when they want to get general information about certain products and when they plan to buy specific accessories. In order to reach them quickly and increase your reach, it is worth investing in sponsored links. This form of advertising will make the link to your tackle shop appear above the organic search results after the recipient enters a keyword related to the offered assortment. The first position increases the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your website and take advantage of the offer.

PLA advertising – Product Listing Ads increases the conversion potential even more. This solution is intended mainly for the e-commerce industry. It is based on the fact that the search engine above and next to the standard search results displays specific product offers related to what has been entered in Google. For example, if the recipient uses the keyword “fishing reel”, a photo of the product offered by your store may appear next to the search results, along with the price and name of the store. There is a chance that the recipient will click on such an offer and make a purchase or at least be interested in your offer.

Google Display Network – advertising of a fishing tackle shop on external websites

Of course, these are advertising banners displayed on portals visited by your recipient. This is an extremely effective form of promotion, especially when targeting people to whom messages are displayed is based on the analysis of cookies in their browser. This is how remarketing. It is a strategy that involves showing product ads to people who have visited a given online store. For example, a customer looked into your e-shop, viewed specific products, e.g. landing nets, but did not complete the purchase – abandoning the basket. This is a very common occurrence. Nevertheless, you can attract some of these audiences back to your store – remarketing ads serve this purpose. Recipients will see banners with specifically viewed products and, for example, with an offer of a few percent discount.

Advertising of a fishing tackle shop on Facebook – is it worth it?

Advertising on Google brings many benefits – from quick translation into website traffic, to the ability to precisely monitor the results of the campaign and how effectively the budget has been used. Facebook ads operate on a similar basis.

Is this the right medium to advertise your tackle shop? Absolutely! On this portal you will find many recipients interested in your products – both young and old. With them in mind:
– run an attractive fanpage that will be combined with content marketing activities on your website (e.g. with a company blog) – it will help you build organic reach,
– promote your solutions using a wide range of tools – from sponsored posts, through advertising banners, to sales tools,
– think about automating communication with recipients by using a chatbot.

The tackle shop can also be promoted on other social media. Pinterest can be a good solution – it is a place eagerly visited by hobbyists.

To sum up, an effective advertisement for a fishing tackle shop on the Internet is one that is based on a coherent and precise strategy, clearly defined goals and carefully selected tools – both in the area of SEO and marketing. If you want to be sure that it will go according to your expectations, use the support of a digital agency. Thanks to this, you will be sure that the money invested in campaigns is well spent and you will see the expected results.

What is hosting?

Almost every tutorial on starting your own website begins with a recommendation to get a domain and hosting. These are two key elements of any website. The domain is the same as the address (name) of the website, while the hosting is the server space on which it is located. However, hosting is also defined as a service consisting in making available part of the server space in order to publish a page on the Internet.

This dual meaning probably partly contributes to the fact that many people do not fully understand what hosting is. Basically, however, the point is the same in each case – the use of server space. The hosting user can place any files on it and then decide on their publication. It is hosting that makes it possible for anyone to enter a given website and use the shared resources. Depending on the type and size of the server part, it gives different possibilities, therefore the choice of hosting is a very important issue for every website owner.

What is a server?

It would be appropriate to explain what a server is, since hosting allows you to rent a part of its space. A server is a computer that:
– is continuously connected to the Internet,
– has specific performance parameters,
– has a specific space,
– meets specific safety requirements.

The owner (administrator) of the server can share the space on it with others. It can separate a specific space and allow any user to use it. However, it still exercises control over the parameters and operation of the server. It can also decide on the ways of using the server and the tools used for it – most often it is a dedicated user panel. This is what is called a hosting service. Web hosting is usually intended for website hosting (web hosting), but can also handle e-mail. It should also be noted that it is the administrator’s responsibility to ensure the proper, continuous and stable operation of the server and thus any hosting accounts used.

It is also possible to invest in your own server and use all its space. This is an option with many advantages (more on them later in the text), but also with one major disadvantage, which is high cost. That is why most websites on the Internet use the so-called Shared hosting, i.e. just a separate space on a shared server.

Hosting – types of servers

If you’re considering hosting, it’s also worth knowing the types of servers you can use. Each of them is intended for a slightly different recipient, so the choice in this area should not be a particular problem – even for someone who does not have specialist IT knowledge. What types of servers are available and what possibilities do they offer?

Shared hosting
Most websites use servers that offer shared hosting. It is the technology described above which consists in allocating a certain amount of space on a given server and assigning it to individual users. Usually, in this case, all accounts are assigned to the same IP. This makes such hosting the least efficient and stable. Of course, this does not have to mean problems – good shared hosting can only periodically (in times of increased traffic) work a little less smoothly, causing e.g. slower page loading. However, this is often only minimally noticeable.

The greatest advantage of shared hosting is definitely the affordable price. This is the cheapest solution, although of course each server owner proposes slightly different prices and payment plans. It is also a good choice for people without IT expertise. The account and website maintenance is usually done via an intuitive user panel, and all the work related to the maintenance and maintenance of the server is carried out by the hosting company. Shared hosting is used by basically all smaller websites, including blogs.

VPS (Virtual Private Server)
A slightly better solution in terms of stability or bandwidth is VPS hosting, i.e. hosted on a virtual private server. What does it mean? Hosting in this case is also a separate part of the server, but it is created as a separate virtual machine. This involves assigning a separate IP address and clearly better operation, completely independent of other users. You can freely customize and organize your workspace. Such hosting also allows you to install any software.

However, it should be remembered that the physical hosting is still only separate from the server used by many other accounts. Therefore, such a solution is not synonymous with the highest level of security. A VPS server is more expensive than a shared server. Usually, using it also entitles you to additional services, such as the care of a dedicated consultant. It is a solution designed for larger parties that care about stability and smooth operation. It is used, for example, by game servers and large online stores.

Dedicated server
A dedicated server can be called the “crème de la crème” of all web hosts. This option is based on the use of your own individual physical server. One computer supports one account, which of course offers many advantages. The first is independence. Second – stability, even in moments of increased traffic. Third, it is the safest solution. Separating the site on a separate server significantly reduces the risk of cyber attacks and other similar problems. Fourthly, a dedicated server gives you complete freedom of action, software installation, etc. So it is not difficult to guess that this is the most expensive solution – the price difference compared to a shared server is huge. That is why only the largest websites use it – e.g. e-mail servers, streaming services or popular internet portals. A dedicated server also requires the employment of professionals to operate it.

What Makes Good Hosting Different?

Website owners and entities planning to launch their own website often look for “good hosting”. But what does that actually mean? Hosting is largely responsible for the operation of the website – primarily its smoothness and speed. Therefore, it is important to:
– hosting used a high-quality, stable server,
– the operation of the server was constantly monitored by the technical team,
– the server was configured in such a way as to ensure data security for users, protection against cyber attacks and other threats on the network,
– the server’s connection to the Internet was stable (in the event of a link failure, it should be automatically changed so that there would be no disruptions).

For many people, server and hosting support will also be very important. It is important that the devices are supervised by specialists who know their job very well, and that any unforeseen faults are removed as soon as possible. Customer service will be no less important – technical support that allows you to consult both on problems and configuration of the website on the server or other activities.

Paid or free hosting?

There are both paid and free hosting plans on the market. Some companies offer different hosting plans, including one that is completely free. However, is it worth choosing? Not necessarily if you are thinking about creating a real functional website. Free web hosting may be tempting, but in many cases it just doesn’t work. Such a service is usually distinguished by:
– very limited disk space – which allows you to build only a very simple, small page;
– low, limited transfer – which may cause problems with displaying or loading the page;
– the presence of advertisements – often quite intrusive and making it difficult to read the content of the website.

In addition, when choosing such a solution, you often have to take into account failures and other similar problems. So you should never use free hosting for sites that are intended to represent any kind of business activity. A website that is inefficient, slow or flooded with advertisements looks highly unprofessional and has a negative impact on the company’s image. You can use free hosting, for example, when trying out new features or learning how to create, modify or maintain websites.

How to choose a hosting?

So how do you choose hosting? What parameters should you pay attention to? If you already know what type of server you need, it’s time to start looking at specific offers. Before you decide on a specific hosting, be sure to check all the above-mentioned parameters. Hosting providers often tempt with promotions and attractive fees, e.g. for the first year, and after signing the contract, it turns out that after this time, hosting costs increase dramatically. Sometimes it also happens that the server from the promotion simply “does not demand”. How to avoid such mistakes? Drive on hard data. Check what to look at before signing the contract.

Uptime
Uptime is a rather mysterious-sounding parameter that simply means availability. It determines how often the server is unavailable due to outages or other problems – that is, how often you have to reckon with a broken website. It is defined as a percentage. If you’re looking for good hosting, choose a company that boasts an uptime of at least 99%. Some service providers also provide compensation if the uptime drops below a certain level. It is a sign of customer care, as well as hard work on the stability and proper operation of the server.

Data transfer
Data transfer is called link speed. It indicates how much data can be transferred per second between your website and the network. How fast your website loads depends on the speed of your internet connection. Of course, it is worth looking for the highest possible values. Hardly anyone has the patience to wait more than a second for the site to load. Slow action is able to effectively discourage reading its content. It is also good to check if the hosting has any data limit. Of course, unlimited offers are the best.

Security
Security is one of the most important issues. Moreover, its importance is constantly growing. It is up to the hosting company to ensure the appropriate level of security to protect the data of the website owner and his customers. Of course, hosting should support the standard SSL certificate you already have, but it’s also worth checking if there are other security services available. Among other things, the frequency of backing up the accounts is important. It is also worth finding out how long these copies are kept.

Disk space limit
Each hosting service is associated with obtaining a specific slice of disk space. Depending on the complexity of the page, you will need more space. If you only intend to create a business card page, as little as a few hundred megabytes may be enough. However, most pages need more space. Remember that each subsequent bookmark, each photo or graphic will require a specific disk space. You can also attach an e-mail box to the domain, which will take up more megabytes. That is why adjusting the space limit to the user’s needs is so important.

It is also worth finding out what the company’s policy is in case of exceeding the space limit or the transfer limit. This is because sometimes the website is blocked. It is worth choosing a hosting provider that shows more understanding and, for example, sends warnings about exceeding the limits, asking you to modify the website or purchase a higher service package.

Other Limits
Depending on the type of account and hosting company, there are also other limits imposed on users. Of course, the most restrictions are related to the basic, cheapest accounts. Sometimes the number of databases may be limited, other times administrator accounts, domains or subdomains. Think about what is important to you and how you want to run your website before buying hosting, especially the cheapest one.

Technical assistance
Anyone may need technical support. Problems with the pages and their operation vary. They tend to be unexpected and quick removal is crucial. That is why good hosting offers its customers 24/7, easily accessible and reliable support. Everyone should be able to get answers to their questions quickly. It is also worth checking the issue of passing the crash messages and the average time needed to fix the problem. Good hosting can even offer you compensation related to breakdown, ongoing repair or maintenance.

Price
The price of the service is undoubtedly important. However, you should take into account not only the promotional price, which is often offered to new customers (even hosting plans for a dollar for the entire year are available), but also, and maybe even above all, the price for the next billing period. Extending the service with many hosting providers costs much more than creating an account and using it in the initial period. So let’s carefully analyze the offers before you decide on the right one.

Feedback
The feedback can definitely help you choose the right hosting. There are tons of sites on the internet that collect feedback on hosting services. However, it is worth remembering that the entries posted there do not always have to be reliable. It is a competitive market, and both positive and negative word of mouth marketing are basically the order of the day. Therefore, it may be a much better idea to use your friends’ experience. You can also ask a question e.g. on a trusted Facebook group or a closed forum. Then the chance of receiving reliable opinions is much greater.

Trial
What’s the best way to check a given hosting? Of course, during the trial period! Not every company offers such an opportunity, but if it is available, it is definitely worth taking advantage of. Usually it is no more than 14 days, but during this time you can check in practice how the server works and how convenient it is to use the hosting.

Hosting – essential for your website

Hosting is a must for any website. Without it, the site cannot reach other network users. There are many hosting service providers and many options for using them. Therefore, if you run a website or intend to set up one, you will surely find the right option for you.

New customer profile – senior online

To start with, let’s specify who we call senior or elderly. In research, this nomenclature already affects people over 55, and therefore often professionally and socially active people. And the difference between the consumer needs of a 60-year-old and a 70-year-old is huge.

Let us assume, then, that we will refer to senior or online as people who have not grown up surrounded by modern technology, but adapt to it to a greater or lesser extent. Due to the manner and frequency of Internet use, we can divide this group into the following consumer profiles:

– Beginners – their knowledge of the network and technology is small, in this topic they rely primarily on the knowledge of loved ones. They often use only one thing, e.g. mail;
– Advanced – they work with the computer on a daily basis, understand the principles of the Internet and computer programs, and are able to use it no less advanced than the younger generation;
– Enthusiasts – they discovered the internet at a late age, it became their passion, that’s why they use new technologies, invest in them, for example: replace the old phone with a smartphone, understand the operation of applications and games.

What technologies does e-senior use?

Seniors are not strangers to using a smartphone or a computer, and in case of problems they use the help of younger family members or IT courses. E-seniors are also eager to use tablets and e-book readers. Thanks to the data, we know that 18.5% of people in the age group up to 75 are actively using the internet. People over 50 can spend up to 4 hours a day on it. So what do they most often use the network for?

What does a senior do online?

In studies carried out at the request of Paraphrase-Online.com, 94% of respondents declare that they actively use online banking, and 68% of them do it at least once a week. Thanks to the online service of a bank account plus the increasing knowledge of the network, new opportunities have opened up for seniors in the form of online shopping.

The most frequently purchased products include clothing, cosmetics, perfumes and books. Often these are gifts for friends and family members. Household and RTV purchases are also becoming more and more popular. Thanks to research carried out by Paraphrase-Online.com, we also learn that 62% of seniors spend time searching for information about brands, and 65% before buying, compare products, looking for a convenient offer for themselves. Senior online is no different from a young internet user.

Mobile activity is not worse. It turns out that the smartphone often replaces your favorite newspaper or TV show. According to a survey conducted by Paraphrase-Online.com, 60% of users use it every day, and not just for sending sms or phone calls. E-senior willingly takes pictures, and then shares them on social networks, gives on forums, comments. Research has shown that 39% of users aged 55-64 have an account in social media. On portals for seniors you will also find a series of guides on how to use e.g. Snapchat or Instagram.

Adaptation of UX solutions to the needs of E-seniors

It is worth noting that the mechanisms, which are intuitive for the young generation, will most likely be incomprehensible to the senior. Should they be changed completely? As long as e-senior is not our main recipient, the exchange of solutions can be replaced by instructions or a guide. In the opposite situation, it is worth investing in designing the interface or customer path tailored to the needs of the older user. What should be considered?

– Security – one of the most important values for the elderly in the network. Very often he becomes a victim of fraud, cheating or cyberbullying. It is worth stressing the recommendations and certificates, as well as providing access to the hotline or other contact with a person who will assure the senior about the company’s credibility;
– Clear interface – should be easy to use and have specific descriptions and commands;
– Product or service description – must be very accurate. Seniors are a generation that values ‘live’ shopping very much because of their physical sensations – nothing else will provide them with the benefits of a product like seeing it or trying it out. That is why it is worth investing, e.g. in 3D or 360 preview;
– Comments and opinions – seniors do not differ from other clients in this field. They want reviews that will verify product information, so you should increase their visibility on the page.

Customer profile and future of the market

Thanks to statistics and research, we know that the growing number of seniors can significantly affect the consumer market. Longer professional activity and higher earnings are just some of the factors that allow you to look at this group with more interest. Increasing technological awareness gives a lot of new marketing opportunities targeted specifically at e-seniors. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to his needs when creating and improving contact points with the company, especially in the face of data that shows that in a dozen or so years he will be the main recipient of the market.

What determines the price at the copywriter?

The rate for the texts depends mainly on three factors:
– Type of texts – the more difficult the topic and the more demanding the query, the higher the price;
– Order volumes – wholesale orders are cheaper;
– Cooperation time – copywriters usually offer more favorable terms to regular contractors.

To the above variables, there are issues of competence, individual financial expectations and scope of responsibilities (some copywriters offer to put content on a blog or graphic design). The valuation is further complicated by the number of possible corrections and even the possibility of issuing an invoice. This thicket of information makes the copywriter’s price list unique and adapted to each writer-bidder.

Contemporary trends on the copywriting market

Until recently it was said that due to the increase in competition the amount converter for 1000 characters will be consistently falling. Meanwhile, the market has not reacted by falling prices to an increasingly large group of SEO copywriters – contrary to expectations, the range of rates increases, and the financial expectations of copywriters have a wide range.

The reason for this gap is that the creation of substantive content is undoubtedly a difficult task. The work of experts never loses value. Some companies do not want to save on their image, so they can afford more expensive copywriters who create fully professional texts.

What rates are we talking about? How are the “price ranges” currently shaped and how much does good content cost?

Copywriting rates

Below are the average rates that you can most often encounter when browsing cooperation offers.
– Blogging articles: from $ 10 to $ 50 for 1000 characters.
– Back-up texts: from $ 3 to $ 18 for 1000 characters.
– Product and category descriptions: from $ 8 to $ 30 for 1000 characters.
– Content per page: from $ 200 to $ 1000 counted as a whole for the project.
– Leaflet texts: from $ 30 to $ 200.
– Naming and advertising slogans: from $ 100 to $ 5000 per project.

As you can see, the amounts vary and it is impossible to define a universal solution that will prove to be profitable. Each company has different needs, which is why the choice of copywriting prices will always depend on financial possibilities and expectations regarding the quality of texts.

Billing for signs or for the whole project?

There is also no ready answer to the question of how to settle accounts with the copywriter. The predetermined cost of the project is convenient and transparent, although it is not easy to get a fixed length of the text – most often it is referred to the target value around which the volume of content oscillates.

As for the characters with spaces, this converter accurately reflects the price due for copywriting, but it can lead to some misunderstandings depending on which fragments are counted (it is not always known whether tags, meta-descriptions, alternative texts are subject to it). For this reason, when establishing cooperation with a copywriter, it is worth making sure that the settlement rules have been established clearly.

Price for copywriting – summary

Talking about money is never easy and comfortable, so it’s even more important to clearly define what elements make up the final price of copywriting.

The range of amounts is wide, so specify your expectations and budget before you set out to find the perfect copywriter. Remember to clearly specify the requirements for the quality of the texts, as well as the scope of responsibilities and the number of possible corrections.

What exactly does the SEO (search engine optimization) service that Paraphrase-Online.com provides to its clients? Do you have to pay extra for something extra for additional SEO activities? Why positioning is not an instant service and the SEO contract itself lasts up to 12 months? We take a closer look at popular questions that our account managers meet.

SEO: Positioning – what are we dealing with?

Website positioning service is more than just a one-off website review – audit, even in the extended variant combined with the preparation of optimization recommendations. The positioning performed by SEO specialists from Paraphrase-Online.com begins with an audit of the website itself and the links. The information obtained during them becomes the basis for preparing a positioning strategy including elements such as:

– website optimization, e.g. in terms of speed of operation,
– optimization of meta tags for the keywords entered in the contract,
– preparation and implementation of unique, optimized and appropriate length content on the website,
– linking divided into stages and diversified in terms of type and source of links,
– redirection,
– introducing improvements and changes suggested by Google Search Console.

The above list of works is not closed, but contains only examples of activities. A set of positioner works is created for a specific case – the individual needs of a given site. The type of access to the page at the disposal of the SEO specialist is also significant. Full access to the website is very useful for the comprehensive provision of SEO services.

The positioning strategy may change during the contract period. This is due to, among others from observing changes in the algorithm, the website’s response to actions applied by its SEO specialist, or the quality of competing websites. If the positioner observes that the competitors of the website they are dealing with increases the amount of content on their websites, they may, in response, recommend the introduction of larger pools of text also on the website which is under his care. It may also propose the creation of new subpages, e.g. a blog on a website, which will serve as a space for systematic publication of new texts supporting the positioning process.

SEO activities – what do we have in the price of the service?

We are aware that surprising additional expenses during the term of the contract is not what our customers want. To spare them such unpleasant surprises, already at the stage of presenting the offer and packages for SEO activities, we indicate what activities fall within the scope of a particular package. If our client is interested in a selected package, but would like to add something extra to it that is included in another package, then it is worth contacting the client’s representative who will provide a quote for this additional activity. Our goal is to offer SEO services tailored to the needs of our clients as much as possible.

We follow a simple rule that if something has a direct impact on the positioning service, it appears in the package of activities performed as part of the service. That is why we prepare new content for subpages directly related to keywords – this happens as part of the service. However, if our client would like to have texts written by the copywriter for all subpages, including those not affecting positioning, it will be treated as an additional service and as such an extra priced.

It is not possible that we will do some additional work on the website, and only after a while we will inform the customer that this is an extra paid item.

Why can’t SEO services be called instant?

One of the main differences between Google Ads and positioning is that in the case of the SEO service comes to wait for the results (on the other hand, they are more durable than in the case of Google Ads). Depending on the website we are working on, the existing link profile, the extent of optimization, competition, selected keywords and many other factors, we have to wait for the results for several weeks, several months or even a year. Unfortunately, positioning is not an exact science and there are no simple and guaranteed “10 added links = 5 positions increase in results”.

It happens that the very introduction of optimization brings satisfying results in the form of an increase in position. In practice, we can also deal with situations in which e.g. the next round of links brings results and increases occur. This does not mean, however, that previous actions were unnecessary – it is more about the cumulation effect. Due to this certain unpredictability inscribed in the reality of the positioner’s work, we avoid unequivocal declarations and assurances that the client will have to wait 5 weeks for results.

Just as certain actions translate into position increases, so removing them can mean declines. One of the most common cases in this category is removing meta tag optimization. The introduction of appropriate meta tags is one of the foundations of the positioning process.

During the duration of the positioning service, there are necessarily changes in the Google algorithm. Given the dynamics and frequency of their implementation, there is no way that a 12-month positioning contract would not come across them. Positioners don’t know about these changes in advance about the algorithm. Only after a while they can react to them and implement changes on the website adapting them to new realities. The changes in the algorithm should not be associated only with declines in position. It happens that such an update is a chance for quick promotion in search results (and it does not have to be only a temporary increase). The changes in the algorithm are generally geared to supporting high-quality websites – extensive, interesting content, user-friendly (see e.g. the issue of page speed). If our website falls under this trend, then updates can be its ally.

CEO basics – what do they include?

Can you talk about a kind of SEO primer, something that contains the basics of SEO in relation to each page? Certainly, it is something like a website audit, which we presented in more detail in the section “SEO: Positioning – what are we dealing with?” Of this blog article. This meticulously performed SEO audit provides solid foundations for SEO strategies. While the SEO audit is focused on examining a certain pool of “necessary” (it is difficult to imagine SEO activities in this area, e.g. without evaluating meta tags, the presence of various types of duplicates, the amount of published content or the possibility of indexing the site by Google network robots – these are absolute SEOs basics for internal auditing), then SEO strategies may differ.

SEO strategies – why these differences?

There are many sources of differences when it comes to SEO strategies. In this case, we will focus on a few basic and common ones. Of course, there is also the fact that the SEO industry is not exact science. How SEO services are provided by individual positioners depends on their experience, know-how, tools used, etc. SEO strategies will vary depending on whether:

– we are dealing with a new page or history – a good website history is an undoubted advantage when it comes to SEO services;
– if the page has already collected links, and if so – what are the links, where do they come from, in what quantities does the website have them etc .; the current link profile is important when it comes to preparing an SEO strategy;
– SEO optimization – has it already been made, is it the correct optimization, or the desired changes can be applied safely and without problems to the website; the time spent on website optimization for SEO must be included in the SEO strategy;
– whether the page has not been punished by Google (we are talking here first of all about manual penalties – we are able to act to remove such a penalty from the website by appropriate actions).

It is also worth considering that SEO strategies are spread out over time and divided into stages that are performed in a logical order. SEO optimization, and thus its internal improvement, is usually done before linking. Similarly, even the best optimization will not produce results if the website continues to be penalized by Google.

Website optimization for SEO – compulsory driving

One of the first activities in the positioning process is the implementation and implementation of its optimization on the website. Do you dream of effective positioning?

Optimization is the point that cannot be missed. Specific websites need to be optimized at various levels; not all sites allow the same. Let us expand on these rather enigmatic statements.

Not every page requires optimization to the same extent – this means that there are pages that do not have, for example, errors in the head section that make positioning difficult, have a well-built menu and internal linking, do not have problems with duplicates. In this case, the positioner does not force on related modifications – because he does not have to. This site gets points right from the start. Therefore, it is worth consulting a SEO specialist when planning a new website and then positioning it. He will certainly suggest what to look for and implement at such an early stage. If the current website has already worked out results and e.g. positions in the top10 or close to this top, then it is worth moving to the new version of the website so as to minimize the risk of declines in already developed positions (and this risk always occurs). Here also an SEO specialist can help.

Not every page allows you to perform optimization to the same extent – it is related to access to the website, as well as the technology in which it was made. Positioners receive access from their clients to allow different levels of freedom of action. Not every change can be implemented by an SEO specialist in such a situation. You may need help from the client or a statement that we consciously abandon its implementation and the potential benefits of it.

Website positioning – SEO supported by tools

Positioners benefit from the support of various tools that provide useful data in their activities. An overview of popular tools from the positioner’s bag has already been presented on our blog in this entry and this entry is still valid. The list of 8 tools mentioned there is of course not exhaustive. An interesting case among the tools listed there is Google Search Console. They are distinguished by the fact that it is a free tool (just like Google Analytics) and … it was not created for positioners (Google does not create any tool for SEO specialists), but for webmasters. It is worth connecting them to your website. It provides information about website traffic (although not as extensive as Google Analytics), and also detects errors in the operation of the website. These errors are important not only in the context of SEO. The presence of subpages with 404 errors on the site may adversely affect the behavior of potential customers on the website and discourage them from making purchases. It is worth introducing redirects in this case, so that the potential customer had a reason to stay within the website and get acquainted with the product range that is close to interesting.

It is similar in the case of problems with adapting the website to display on mobile devices. Given the growing importance of mobile traffic and the number of transactions carried out in this way, it is not worth discouraging these customers from a hostile website that is not adapted to mobile devices. Google Search Console indicates which problems the website faces in terms of mobility (if any, in its case).

Affiliate program – what is it?

The affiliate program is the alternative name for affiliate programs run as affiliate marketing. It can be described as internet marketing technique, which involves conducting activities not directly by the seller, but by independent marketers and publishers.

How does the affiliate program work?

The affiliate program is based on cooperation between the seller and partners. Its essence is the advertiser (seller) delegating marketing activities to partners. In return for the effects of their activities, they receive commissions.
It is worth emphasizing that the partners have virtually unlimited possibilities of action. They use available techniques and methods in any way – so that the developed strategy brings the expected results.

Participants of the affiliate program

Although the core of the affiliate program is the advertiser and publisher, there are more participants.

– Advertiser (seller) – informs about the promoted product and provides a specific creation.
– Affiliate network – provides the received creative to publishers.
– Publisher (partner) – places product information in the form of an affiliate link.
– User – clicks on the affiliate link and goes to the advertiser’s website and then purchases.

It is worth emphasizing that partner programs are also possible without the affiliate network. However, many advertisers choose to use it because:

– allows advertisers to establish relationships with publishers,
– manages tracking,
– manages payments.

Types of affiliate programs

Although the essence of how affiliate programs work is actually the same, there are different ways of billing between the advertiser and the publisher. That is why three main types of affiliate programs are distinguished.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)
Pay Per Lead should be understood as payment for a specific action that the user will perform after clicking on the affiliate link. It can be e.g. filling out a form, leaving contact details, subscribing to the newsletter, etc.

Pay Per Sale (PPS)
Pay Per Sale is a type of affiliate program that focuses on sales and purchases. This means that the publisher receives a commission from the advertiser when the user clicks on the affiliate link and makes a purchase. The remuneration is a percentage of the value of the subject of the transaction.

Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay Per Click is a type of affiliate program in which the settlement is based on clicks made by users. Payments are made regardless of the number of products sold. Due to this fact, there are few affiliate programs settling on such principles, because they often do not translate into sales effectiveness.

It is also worth emphasizing that there are two types of affiliate programs:

– one-level – the publisher receives remuneration only for its own activities,
– two levels – the publisher receives remuneration for its own activities and the activities of the team it created.

The important role of affiliate links

When talking about affiliate programs, mention should be made of affiliate links. It is thanks to them that the user gets to the advertiser’s website, and the publisher receives remuneration.

An affiliate link is a unique URL that redirects potential customers to the advertiser’s website. Thanks to this, we know what part of the sale comes from the affiliate program. The advantage of affiliate links are unlimited possibilities of use. It is a comprehensive tool that can be used regardless of the type of marketing activities. These types of links can be placed in multiple channels at once, e.g.

– blogs,
– YouTube channels
– mailings,
– social networks,
– discount websites,
– thematic websites,
– internet forums,
– search engines and product comparison websites.

Affiliate program – where to start?

If you are a salesman and want to achieve your goals, you must first create an affiliate program. The next step is to invite publishers to participate. Although you can create a publisher network yourself, it’s better to get started with affiliate network support. It provides all the technological facilities, tools for publishers, as well as tools that allow you to track statistics useful during campaign optimization.

If you’re a publisher, you can search for advertisers on your own or, as with sellers, join an affiliate network. Thanks to this, you will not only gain access to active partner programs, but also the certainty of proper settlement of sellers.

Affiliate programs – is it worth it?

Affiliate programs are a marketing technique that has mutual benefits – both from the advertiser’s and the publisher’s point of view.

Low advertising cost
The advertiser bears much lower advertising costs because the publisher is responsible for conducting marketing activities. Depending on the type of program selected, for example, the seller may only be billed for sales, thanks to which he ultimately bears a lower cost compared to independently conducted advertising activities – even if the sales commission is quite high.

Chance for an attractive salary
A publisher participating in partner programs has a chance to get a high salary. It is adequate to the efficiency of marketing activities, which motivates to intensively promote the product. It can use any tools – so as to ensure the highest possible conversion.